The distinctive tools are the ones grep cannot fake: a traced call path with file and line at each hop, the implementations of an interface, and `cie_verify_absence` for security work where you need to show something is not there. It runs entirely on your machine, and it degrades cleanly — without an embedding provider you lose semantic search and keep everything else.
CIE indexes a repository into a local embedded database and exposes it to an agent as MCP tools: find code by meaning, trace how execution reaches a function, list the HTTP endpoints, and read source without opening files. A single binary does the indexing, the querying and the MCP serving.
- Navigation and search — `cie_grep`, `cie_semantic_search`, `cie_find_function`, `cie_find_type`, `cie_find_similar_functions`, `cie_list_files`, `cie_list_functions_in_file`
- Call graph — `cie_find_callers`, `cie_find_callees`, `cie_trace_path` for the path from an entry point to a target, and `cie_get_call_graph`
- Understanding — `cie_analyze` for architectural analysis, `cie_get_function_code`, `cie_directory_summary`, `cie_find_implementations`, `cie_get_file_summary`
- API surface — `cie_list_endpoints` for HTTP routes from common Go frameworks, `cie_list_services` for gRPC services from .proto files
- Audit and system — `cie_verify_absence` to prove a pattern does not exist, plus `cie_index_status`, `cie_search_text` and `cie_raw_query`
- 20+ tools in total; only `cie_semantic_search` needs embeddings, the rest work without them
Install the CLI with `brew tap kraklabs/cie && brew install cie`, the install script, or a release binary. Then `cie init -y` and `cie index` in the repo, and register `cie --mcp` with your client. Indexed data stays on the machine, by default under `~/.cie/data/<project_id>`. Embeddings are optional: for semantic search configure a provider in `.cie/project.yaml` — Ollama with `nomic-embed-text`, or OpenAI or Nomic via `OPENAI_API_KEY` or `NOMIC_API_KEY`. Dual-licensed AGPL v3 or commercial.
One command — brew tap kraklabs/cie && brew install cie